The Decision
by 100gamesvictor
Summary: Clary wanted to ask for Jac's life but she heard his voice telling him no. She does what it says and things spiral. Suck at summaries. Read and Review.


**Well, I decided that I would try my hand at a Mortal Instruments fic. I love the series. So much action. So, this is my take on what happened.**

**What if Clary hadn't asked for Jace? What if she asked for something else? This is what.  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Mortal Instruments. That immense honor belongs to the one, the only, Cassie Clare**

* * *

Clary stared up at the angel. She could have anything. She could rid the world of demons. She could bring about world peace. But she wouldn't. She couldn't. Those were things that humanity had to work toward on their own. If that weren't the case, it would have been done years ago. It didn't matter. No matter what she should ask for, there was only one thing that she would ask for.

Clary opened her mouth. The name formed by her lips. Just before she spoke, she heard it. _Clary,_ it said. She knew that voice. Soft and musical. The melodic ring that accompanied it when he spoke. The flow of it like liquid gold were all familiar to her. No one else could have spoken.

Jace

_Don't ask for me._ The voice spoke in her ear. It was a soft whisper. Faint and fluid like the wind. The way it flowed reminded her of all the times she was with him. Yet she couldn't comprehend what it was saying. Why would she not ask for him? They were meant to be together. The thought of not saving him, wherever he was, couldn't be processed.

_This is the chance, _the echo whispered. _Undo Sebastian's wrongs. Set it right._ The wind sung. Now it made sense. No matter how much Jace would want to be with her, he would want her to fix the mistakes that have been done first.

Clary knew what she had to do. She gulped and looked upon the Angel's face. The glorious being that was before her looked at her with a gentleness that wasn't there when his gaze rested upon Valentine moments before. Yet despite the kindness, he could never be gentle. The radiation of power that he exerted was too forceful.

"Jonathan," the word left her mouth as if someone else had spoken. "I want all of the horror he caused to be undone. Max Lightwood, Hodge Starkweather, and all the others that he killed be brought back as they were before he touched their lives."

A look crossed the angel's face. It was not incredulous, but mildly surprised. It was as if he had not anticipated that response. However, he nodded slowly before answering her. _Close your eyes, Clarissa Morgenstern._ She did as he asked. No matter what an Angel wanted you to do, you did it. You didn't say no. As soon as her eyes shut, she wished they hadn't. In the darkness, she couldn't erase the picture of Jace's body, impaled with a sword. Suddenly, the darkness grew lighter, as if a great light was beating against her eyelids. A peaceful warmth spread across her body. After a moment, the light died, but the warmth remained.

She laid there, the warmth slowly draining out of her bones, for what felt like forever. The image of Jace thankfully left her mind, but he was all she could think about. The first time she met him in the Pandemonium Club. Seeing him at the coffee shop. Being in the greenhouse with him.

Then there were the darker memories. When they found out they were siblings. Valentine's ship. Him yelling at her at the Penhallow's. Even those things, the things that tore her apart, shaped their relationship. She wouldn't change any of it if she could. It made them who they were.

In the distance, Clary heard the sound of beating hooves against worn dirt, sinking ground. The sound of approaching shadowhunters. Clary knew that she needed to open her eyes, but the memories of Jace stuck in her head prevented her. She needed to think about him. The time they went to Wayland Manor. The one night together. She needed that.

Finally it was too much and she opened her eyes. The blur of the world took a minute to sharpen, but once it did Clary realized that nothing had changed in the area. The water was clear and quiet and the only sign of difference was the mortal sword and cup sitting on the banks of the river, apparently purified.

The hooves were approaching fast. There wouldn't be very much time before they had arrived. There was just one thing that she needed to do. She pushed herself off the ground, staggering under her own weight and limped over to Jace's body.

His eyes were open, wide with shock, and his face had not quite lost its color. All Clary wanted to do was burst into tears, but she had to do this. He deserved to have it. Taking a deep breath, she gazed down at his body. The hooves in the background were quickly approaching, but that knowledge was secondary. This had to happen. She leant down and gently closed his eyes. Then, she uttered the words "Ave Atque Vale Jace Lightwood."

Lightwood. Yes, he was a Lightwood. No matter whose blood ran through his veins, he was a Lightwood. Clary thought of Maryse, reprimanding Jace for his language the way Clary's mother often did, and knew that there was a bond there. She was his mother. Alec and Izzy and Max were his siblings. They were a family.

Clary swiftly turned her head away from Jace. She couldn't look at his cold corpse any longer. She turned her head to the east. There were figures on horses closing in fast. _Well,_ Clary thought. _This is it._ And it was.

The shadowhunters arrived full force, armed with seraph blades and lethal looking swords. When they noticed that Valentine wasn't there, they all began talking at once. "Where is he?" "What happened?" "How did you get here?" Rang through the crowd in general.

One woman with short blond hair screamed. Everyone looked in the direction she was pointing, right at Valentine's body, still slightly smoking from the hole that the Angel had blown through it. Everyone grew deathly quiet. One man, twice Clary's size with crapped black hair and a grumpy scowl came forward. In a highly accented voice, though she didn't know where the accent was from, he said "You must come with us." All Clary could do was nod.

* * *

The young shadowhunters of Idris were all mulling around in the Accords Hall. The mermaid fountain in the center of the room spewed forth some water, but very little at that. Aline Penhallow sat on a ledge of the fountain. Her parents were off fighting in a battle that would likely kill them. Her friends were all missing. Her cousin was probably dead. In short, her life sucked.

Akyla Nightwine came up to her, dragging along Scipio Unabella. Akyla was a fifteen-year-old girl from Venice. She lived there with Scipio as well as his parents who ran the Venetian Institute. She looked at Aline and said "Will the adults be okay?"

Aline smiled slightly at that. Unlike most shadowhunters, Akyla lived in Venice. Very few demons attacked there so she wasn't as used to the idea of death. Aline wanted to reassure her, but Scipio beat her to it. In his lightly accented voice, the sixteen-year-old said "They might be, but we don't know. They've only been gone for a few minutes."

Aline found herself nodding along with Scipio. Yes. It was good to preserve what little innocence could be salvaged in the minds of the young. She was about to say so when a bright gold light engulfed the entire room. Aline cried out and shielded her eyes with her forearm.

When the light died, there stood three people. All were boys, Aline could tell, but otherwise looked nothing alike. Of them, one seemed to be middle aged. He had graying hair, dark eyes and beaky features. Also, he seemed to have uneven shoulders.

The next was about her age. He had dark hair, dark eyes, and was quite tall. He had a large nose and a confused expression plastered on his face.

The last was the most shocking. He was nine-years-old. He had ruffled dark hair and blue eyes. His thin frame was that of a child and he wore the same confused expression as the other two.

So did Aline.

She ran over, not even thinking about what could be going on, and threw her arms around the little boy. She knew him. She knew his family. She was friends with his family.

"Max!"

It was. It was him. She didn't know how, or why, but it was Max Lightwood. He should have been dead. She had seen his corpse.

She pulled back to look at his wide eyed expression. His glasses were still on his face, slightly lopsided, but that was the way she knew him. There was a startled expression on his face and a slight tinge of pink on his cheeks.

"Aline," he asked. "What's going on? Where am I? Why're you crying?" Aline hadn't realized she was crying until he had pointed it out. She didn't care. He was alive.

That begged the question, though she barely thought of it, how? How was he alive? She had seen his family come home from the funeral. She knew they had burned his body. How was he alive, completely fine, the way he was before?

While all of this was going on, the other boy, the older one, was looking at the girl wide eyed. She looked familiar, but it had been years since they would have seen each other. But who else would look like her and have the same name?

"Aline?"

She turned to him questioningly. He smiled slightly at her. "It's me. Sebastian." Her whole stature changed at once. However, it wasn't what he expected. Instead of smiling in delight and throwing her arms around him like she did to the little boy she called Max, she did the opposite.

Her expression morphed into a scowl and she animalisticallly snarled. She used one arm to throw the boy behind her and dropped into a defensive crouch. She whipped out a slim dagger lined with runes and pointed it directly at Sebastian. It looked as if she would be shaking with rage, but her hand was firm and her stance steady.

She just short of growled when she said "If you hurt anyone in here, I will _kill _you."

Sebastian took a step back, wide-eyed. He couldn't think of anything that would bring out this kind of reaction in anyone.

The man stepped forward. "Now let's all try to calm down." He pushed Sebastian back. Max saw him and paled. "_Hodge"_ he whispered under his breath.

Aline's blade whipped around to point at Hodge. He took a step back. Her eyes shifted preditorially from Sebastion to Hodge. Landing on Sebastian, she swerved her knife back to him and said "You have ten seconds to explain before I gut you like a fish."

Sebastian's eyes widened as he stumbled over his words to explain. "I, was in Paris. It was, ah, I don't remember the exact date, but there was a demon problem. I was investigating when I met a guy named Andrew Blackthorn. He and I went hunting and he killed the demons. I was begging him to teach me how to do it so fast, and then he was in front of me. Everything was black. I heard someone, a girl I think, talking. Then, the light faded and I was here."

Aline raised her eyebrows as if to say _are you serious? _to him. Her eyes quickly darted through the room. "Akyla," the girl jumped when called, but otherwise remained in place. The other teenagers had formed a circle surrounding the confrontation. Many had pulled out weapons in defense. "Get one of the Blachthorns. We need to talk to them. Preferably Andrew if you could." Akyla nodded and ran off.

Moments later, she returned with a boy. He had chocolate brown hair. His eyes were a strange color, blue green, and his ears were slightly pointed. There was a glint in his eyes of a prankster.

Akyla looked at Aline. "This is Julian," she was interrupted by the kid. "Jules!" Akyla smiled at him. "Jules Blackthorn. He's the oldest Blackthorn here. His older siblings, Andrew, Helen, and Mark, are fighting in Brocelind Plain. It doesn't matter. He could tell us if the person described is the real deal."

Aline's eyes flashed to the boy. He was smiling, though it was grim. His hands went behind his back. He began shuffling around and it took Aline a moment to realize he was searching his pockets for something. After a moment, his hand snapped up and a triumphant grin spread across his face. "This is a picture of last Christmas. My whole family's there." He walked over and handed the picture to Aline. Indeed, there were ten smiling faces in the picture. Two adults were in the middle and were surrounded by eight children.

Aline's eyes shifted to the crowd. "Someone go into the storage room," her eyes darted toward the unopened door. "and get something to tie these two up. This may be a trick." Several children ran forward and into the room. Moments later, they returned with long, thick ropes. Two seventeen-year-olds grabbed each of the men by the arm and led the over to adjacent pillars. After a few moments in which the children tangled the ropes and untangled them a few times, they managed to create a sturdy knot.

Satisfied, Aline lowered her knife and walked over to the boy. He claimed to be Sebastian. Elodie Verlac, Sebastian's aunt, sent pictures of him and this boy could easily be the one. However, she had already been fooled once before. She'll be damned if she lets it happen again.

Sebastian was shocked. Was this the same girl that was scared to venture out into mundane Paris with him two years earlier? That girl had been such an introverted, shy person. This girl was sharp, dangerous, determined. Whatever happened to make her this way was big.

But she hadn't changed completely. There was that moment. When she had seen the boy, Max, he had seen the cracks in the façade. This boy was clearly someone that she cared deeply about.

Standing feet from Sebastian, Aline held up the picture, right in front of his face. "Are any of these people the boy you saw?" Sebastian scanned over the picture. Of the children, only three were the right age. From that, one was a girl. The remaining two, were opposites. One was tall blond, and well built. He had pointed ears and blue green eyes. The other was short, slim, and brown haired. They didn't look like each other except for the eye color. Even then, the blond had only one blue eye, the other being gold.

Neither looked like the boy he met. "No. Neither of the boys here are the one I met. Who was he?" Aline seemed to defrost slightly. Some form of kindness seemed to return to her eyes. Her steely expression softened. The thought crossed her head that this might actually be her cousin.

She looked to Max. "Was what he said about the light true?" Max, who was staring at Hodge with a mixture of anger and confusion, turned to Aline.

"What?" Aline took a deep breath and repeated the question. Max closed his eyes. He remembered the darkness. There was nothing to grasp. Then, he heard a voice and the bright light brought him back. "Yeah. I went through the same thing. There was black. Then, there was light and I was here. But I do remember something else. There was a voice. I don't know whose, but they seemed familiar. They were talking. Then, I was back."

Aline was about to reply when the portal formed. The swirling matrix of pinkish light formed into an unbroken swirl. There were slight figures in it. Dark shadows cast upon the otherwise bright surface. As the circles grew bigger, Aline knew that the adults were arriving quickly. Her eyes flashed toward Sebastian and Hodge. "You're in luck. The Clave's arrived. The real questioning shall begin."

The figures began to flood out. The first was Aline's mother. Jia Penhallow looked a great deal like her daughter. She had the same black hair and dark eyes. Their striking features were the same. This all, along with the curve of their eyes, noted that they were Asian.

Jia ran to her daughter, her dark hair flying out behind her. She was clad in the black gear of the shadowhunters and her arms were littered with fading runes. She flung her arms around her daughter, grasping her tightly as if she might disappear at a moment's notice. "Oh that God!" She pulled back and gazed at her daughter. Her hands were sculpting Aline's face, as if to prove she was real.

"How are you?" Aline nodded at her mother.

"Alright. Look, there's—" but she was interrupted by great arms being thrown around her and her mother. Her father was grasping them, pulling them both into his chest. He was muttering thanks to every god and angel he could name.

Others were falling through. Aline saw several parents pulling their children into deep hugs, relieved that they were alright. There were five faces that truly stuck out in the crowd. Robert and Maryse Lightwood were both searching, hand in hand alongside their son Alec, for their daughter Isabelle. The panic in their eyes, however, was matched only by Jocelyn Fairchild. Her green eyes were alert with panic and her voice was shrill as it called for her daughter Clary. She dragged Lucian Graymark through the crowd by the arm searching for her.

After moments of struggling, Aline managed to free herself from her parents' grasp. She looked at them, eyes fierce, and said "Listen. There's something you need to see." She retold the story of what happened to them and led them over to the captives as proof. Jia immediately takes control, signaling for the shadowhunters to be taken into custody.

Aline turned at the sound of shrieks and cries of joy. Maryse and Robert Lightwood had thrown their arms around their son. They were hugging him so tightly that it seemed like he was about to suffocate.

The doors of Accords Hall Burst open and the excursion team walked in. In the center of their group, a short redhead stood. She was weeping hysterically into her own arms. Aline knew that Clary was tough. Whatever happened, it was bad.

* * *

**I know Aline seemed a little OOC. But I figured, she trusted the fake Sebastian. She let Isabelle down by running away. The Lightwoods were her friends. If she thoguht there was even a chance about that happening again, she wouldn't let it.**

**Also, Clary seemed OOC too. I know. Well, I needed for her to do what she did, even if she wouldn't do it normally. Plus, I figure she would listen to Jace, or Jace's voice.**

**Love it? Hate it? That Being Said...**

**REVIEW!**


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